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Seven suggestions for writing a novel Seven suggestions for writing a novel A recent posting to the alt. books. prediction and misc. writing newsgroups has initiated a spate of private emails to me about getting published, and one person wanted my street address so he could drive over and literally put his manuscript into my hands. I am neither a publisher nor an agent, nor do I want to become one.
However, I understand the frustration that goes with working on something for a large part of ones life, only to have it dismissed with We cannot use this submission at this time. Since the success of Consequences, a number of aspiring novelists have asked me to read their manuscripts. Initially, I was flattered. This feeling has begun to change, and now I feel like the only private who didnt step back when the captain asked for volunteers. There are many good books on novel writing. From some of the manuscripts I have seen, one might conclude that no one is reading these how-to books.
Perhaps one reason is the sheer volume of material available. For the people who refuse to wade through the mass of good advice thats out there, I have distilled it down to one page of the guidelines that I followed when I wrote my first novel. My advice is to rewrite your work until it can pass these seven basic tests before submitting it anywhere. If you have plenty of advice sources already and dont need more, now would be a good time to stop reading. John Ross Seven Suggestions for Writing a Novel 1. OUTLINE: Some authors claim they just start writing and see what pops out.
If they do this and are successful, more power to them. I cannot imagine following this path and ending up with something I liked. I advise laying out the framework of the entire story (including the ending! ) in 2 - 3 pages before actually starting the book. Dont start writing until you have an outline that you really like. 2. DRAMATIC CONCEPT: Publishers Weekly reduces preview descriptions of new books to ONE sentence. You should be able to do this with your book, also.
My novel is over 800 pages, but its dramatic concept can be stated in one sentence: After federal agents have gradually and increasingly chilled citizens rights for decades without suffering any penalty, whats going to happen when they finally hit someone who knows how to hit back? Can you sum up your book in one sentence? If you cant, you dont have a strong enough dramatic concept. Develop one. 3.
POINT-OF-VIEW: Control point-of-view with a limited number of point-of-view characters. Dont jump back-and-forth within a scene; tell from a single viewpoint for an entire chapter or section, then switch. Use the omniscient viewpoint sparingly. Use AT LEAST two POV characters; four is a good number for most novels. If your story is long and stretches over a longer period of time, 6 - 8 is reasonable.
POV characters must be important ones. Dont EVER tell from the POV of a minor character, even for a paragraph. The reader will automatically assume the character is important, and will wait for him to reappear in the story to do something crucial to the storyline. If a minor character is thinking something that the reader has to understand, do a quick rewrite where you figure out a way to have the character say the thought aloud. Related point: If a character is very minor but still necessary (because of his actions), dont even give him a name. Refer to him as the hotel manager or whatever.
Doing this will prevent the reader from expecting him to become integral to the story. 4. TENSION and ESCALATION: Conflict is crucial to a good story. Equally important is that the conflict escalate. The stakes must get higher and higher. Go see Fatal Attraction if you want a lesson in escalation. An excellent first novel with gut-wrenching escalation is A Simple Plan by Scott Smith.
Does the tension in your novel start innocuously and then steadily escalate to a critical level? Rewrite until it does. 5. ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS: Cathy was a kind, hardworking woman whose solid character was grounded in deep religious beliefs. Big deal.
This tells me more about the author than it does about Cathy. Put Cathy in a difficult situation and lets see how she copes. Then Ill see what kind of person she is. Doing this, you will also create characters the reader cares about. Are you lecturing the reader about what your characters are made of, or are your characters actions making it clear? 6. DIALOGUE: Read it aloud.
Does anyone YOU know really talk that way? If not, you need a rewrite. 7. OBVIOUS BLUNDERS: A manuscript littered with misspellings, errors in grammar, and incorrect punctuation brands the author as an illiterate moron. (Raise this agent / publisher impression by an order of magnitude if your narrative voice speaks in incomplete sentences). Hire someone whose English is impeccable to proofread your work. If you dont think you need to do this, ask yourself one question: Do I teach college- or graduate-level English? If the answer is No, you need a proofreader who does.
If these suggestions sound reasonable and youd like more detailed advice along the same lines, I can recommend two books, both by Writers Digest Books. For issues of dramatic concept, read TWENTY MASTER PLOTS AND HOW TO DEVELOP THEM. For those of you who want to write the next bestseller (I certainly do! ) Id recommend Al Zuckermans WRITING THE BLOCKBUSTER NOVEL. This book has a large number of real-life examples of what works and why. Especially good are the first, second, third, and final outlines for one of Ken Folletts novels, THE MAN FROM ST. PETERSBURG. (The first outline is lousy, and we see how Follett changed it into something compelling).
Zuckerman also gets into the POV issue in depth. I read Zuckermans book when I was about halfway through the first draft of UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES. I immediately saw some areas ripe for serious improvement, where minor rewriting made a huge difference. Thats all Ive got right now.
Those of you in this group can send me email asking for advice, but I get over 50 emails a day and I cant answer you individually. Ill try to post here or in misc. writing if there are common questions. Final point: I do not have an agent, so I cant give any advice on how to get one
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